Trends in Choroidal Vascularity Index in Cognitively Normal Individuals

To establish a normative database of choroidal vascularity index (CVI) in cognitively normal adults.

Cognitively healthy volunteers who had a Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score of 23 or higher were included. Exclusion criteria included diabetes mellitus, uncontrolled hypertension, glaucoma, optic neuropathy, vitreoretinal disorders, intraocular surgery other than cataract or refractive, and visual acuity worse than 20/40. Enhanced depth optical coherence tomography images were taken. CVI was calculated from total choroidal area (TCA) and luminal area (LA).

Overall average CVI was 67.0% ± 0.026%, mean TCA was 7.105 ± 4.618, and LA was 4.676 ± 2.843. There was no significant influence of sex on CVI (mean 66.9% females, 67.2% males, p-value 0.444). Age was not strongly associated with CVI with R-squared values all below 0.021. 504 eyes (89.4%) were from White participants, 43 from Black participants (7.50%), 6 from Asian participants, and 12 from other/unreported race. Race did not have a significant influence on mean CVI (67.1% White, 67.3% Black, 66.5% Asian, 64.0% other/not reported, p = 0.073). No statistically significant associations were identified between CVI and the presence of hypertension or cardiac disease.

CVI is a durable metric across several demographic factors and presence of hypertension and/or cardiac disease. Following additional studies, CVI may be a useful biomarker for neurologic, retinal, and choroidal diseases.